Ukraine isn't Washington's top priority, but it's sparking another Washington scandal
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine isn’t an American military ally. Its economic connections to the United States scarcely rank. Its troubles with Russia have largely faded from U.S. headlines.
And yet, for the second time since 2016, this country finds itself embroiled in a major Washington scandal.
President Trump’s push to get Ukrainian leaders to investigate the family of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has dragged a war-torn country back into the crosshairs of American partisan politics. Once again, what happens in Kiev could shape the course of U.S. political fortunes. And once again, Ukrainians are asking themselves why they are getting pulled into the scorched-earth battle zone between Trump and his opponents.
Events in this country, pinched between the European Union and Russia and pulled by eastward and westward forces, have unusual power in Trump-era Washington.
Kiev already played a major role in the scandal that took down Paul Manafort. Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman earned millions of dollars advising Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych before he was ousted by protests in 2014. A black ledger detailing Ukrainian government payments to Manafort surfaced in August 2016, leading to Manafort’s resignation from the campaign and then contributing to the criminal case that sent him away for seven years for tax and bank fraud.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ukraine-isnt-washingtons-top-priority-but-its-sparking-another-washington-scandal/2019/09/22/21c26156-dbf2-11e9-a1a5-162b8a9c9ca2_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1